Norton Calls on Republicans to Restore D.C. Vote
WASHINGTON, DC – The Office of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) released Norton's remarks for the press conference today at 10:30 a.m. in Cannon 421 calling on House Republicans to restore the District of Columbia's vote on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole in the 114th Congress. Norton said, "The irony of the honor of becoming the nation's capital at the price of losing our democratic rights has been too bold to let stand."
Norton's remarks, as prepared, for delivery follow:
Statement of Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton
Press Conference on District of Columbia Vote in the Committee of the Whole
January 5, 2015
This city has struggled for its full citizenship rights since residents lost them in 1801, when the District of Columbia became the home of the nation's capital. The irony of the honor of becoming the nation's capital at the price of losing our democratic rights has been too bold to let stand. Residents have spent more than two centuries trying to retrieve what they lost. Piece by piece, they achieved a delegate to Congress, an elected school board, an appointed mayor and city council, and finally under the Home Rule Act of 1973, an elected mayor and council and home-rule powers commemorated on its 40th anniversary last year.
The vote in the Committee of the Whole we first won in the 103rd Congress, allowing the vote on some matters on the House floor, is not the full vote our citizens lost in 1801. Still, while striving to retrieve all we lost, we will not leave any rights that are within reach on the table.
We followed the rules in demonstrating our right to the vote in the Committee of the Whole to the satisfaction of the federal courts. Yet, even this vote has been withdrawn by Republicans, the House Rules, although it is not the full House vote we deserve and certainly not the statehood we are determined to win. The $4 billion in income taxes the District contributes annually to the U.S. Treasury, the highest per capita in the nation, continues to be demanded without a vote in return.
Tomorrow, as the New Congress opens, I will rise from my seat on the House floor to seek the vote the District has exercised for three Congresses since 1993. In a democracy, the vote must not be tied to the party in power. The District had the vote in House committees since long before I was elected, and that has persisted through Congresses controlled by Republicans and Democrats alike. All we ask now is that the District's vote in committees, granted by House Rules, be extended on the House floor in the Committee of the Whole, as sanctioned by the federal courts.
Republicans have said that now that they control both houses, they will show they can govern by working with Democrats. What better start than to return the District's vote in the Committee of the Whole. Far from threatening the large Republican majority, restoring the District's vote would be a no-cost way to signal their intention to govern with fairness in the best traditions of American democracy.